{"source":"Sports","paragraphs":["\u003cp\u003eThe high point remains the 4-0

defeat of Leicester City on Boxing Day, one of those rare performances where each
component part of a sporting machine appears to be operating with some intimate,
shared knowledge of the other pieces. Either side of this there has at times been
an air of double take about Liverpool’s run, of things happening that stretch
credibility, that verge on some kind of sporting magic
realism.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eThough the Nets had just been eliminated by
the Atlanta Hawks in the first round of the playoffs, they had overachieved and
shown some promise for the future. And Phil Jackson had become the Knicks president
the year before, bringing his triangle offense and a coaching résumé that included
11 N.B.A. titles to Manhattan. Little did New York fans know that it would be four
dreadful years before playoff basketball would return to the city. It finally will
on Thursday night, when the Nets host the Philadelphia 76ers in a series tied at
one all. While there has been no playoff basketball in the city in the interim,
much has happened in those four years. And for Knicks and Nets fans, not much of it
has been good.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eAnd sure enough, if they tune in to the
upcoming Rugby World Cup in Japan, they will see many large players on the field.
There are the wide bodies, the 275-pound-or-so prop forwards like Sekope Kepu of
Australia, Charlie Faumuina of New Zealand or Steven Kitshoff of South Africa. Then
there are the tall timber guys — most often in the lock position — like the 6-foot-
10 Rory Arnold of Australia, his 6-foot-8 teammate Adam Coleman, or Brodie
Retallick of New Zealand and Eben Etzebeth of South Africa, also both 6-foot-8, and
quite a few others who look like they would be comfortable in the
N.B.A.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eIt seems every year there is huge growth in
women’s sport. Each new year brings bigger crowd figures, new competitions,
increased television coverage and new records being set. But as the nation took to
social media to share in the emotion of Phillips’ anterior cruciate ligament
injury, it was clear there was another, less quantifiable, factor at play. Earlier
this month, journalist Isabelle Westbury faced backlash on Twitter when she was
critical of the criteria for Britain’s Sports Personality of the Year
award.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eNaturally, when teams shrug at the free-agent
market, it manifests itself in salaries below players’ expectations. But the
widespread rebuilding phenomenon — or tanking, as some call it — resulted in eight
teams with at least 95 losses last season, the most in history. It was no
coincidence that attendance also dropped by more than three million fans, falling
below 70 million for the first time since 2003.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eNo
sport is more often used to tell the story of America than baseball. Yet Marcenia
Lyle Stone, known as Toni, who became the first woman ever to play big-league
professional baseball when she took the field as a second baseman for the Negro
Leagues’ Indianapolis Clowns in 1953, has largely been relegated to a footnote in
history: one in a long list of African-American women who endured hardships,
overcame discrimination and helped shape the nation only to be shoved aside, their
contributions minimized.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eEven by his own high
standards Lewis Hamilton set a new benchmark in 2019. In a class of his own, his
sixth championship was defined by opening with an almost crushing, relentless run
that all but had the job done by the summer break. After Valtteri Bottas started
strongly and the teammates shared two wins apiece, Hamilton found another plane.
Four from four followed including harassing Sebastian Vettel into an error in
Canada, a tyre management masterclass in Monaco and a clinical, precision
dissection in France where he finished 18 seconds
ahead.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eRichard Lewis, the outgoing chief executive of
Wimbledon, hopes tennis can be \"off and running again\" by August, when the US
Open is scheduled to begin, although he admits there may be \"no more tennis this
year\". Speaking the day after the All England Club finally cancelled the
championships for the first time since the second world war, Lewis acknowledged
that uncertainty has gripped tennis because of the continued spread of
coronavirus.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eAgüero’s latest goal puts him alongside
Alan Shearer in one respect. They are the only two players in the Premier League
era to score 20 times or more in six different seasons. Yet the more important
detail relates to what that goal means for the title race on a day when the
supporters of Liverpool, an hour into the game, might have dared to think the
momentum was about to swing dramatically their
way.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eHis original lawsuit against the Yankees and
M.L.B. was dismissed in 2015, and last October, an appellate court rejected his
arguments to have that judgment overturned. In fact, the New York State Supreme
Court even ordered Zlotnick to pay the league and the Yankees $745 in court costs,
which he has refused to pay. Editors’ Picks Yes, Fake News Is a Problem. But
There’s a Real News Problem, Too. The next, and possibly final step, is the state
Court of Appeals in Albany, which has received arguments from both sides and is
expected to rule soon on whether Zlotnick’s appeal can proceed.\u003c/p\u003e"]}